BEWARE: Bill Collectors Troll Social Media Sites
Bill Collectors Don’t Think You Know
I know that you believe that Social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn, can serve as productive and efficient means of staying in touch personally, professionally, and politically; just ask young people in Egypt. However, careless membership in these sites poses very real risks to your personal privacy, your employment, and possibly your wages and bank balance.
Bill Collectors Are Your Facebook Friends
In case you are not aware, collection attorneys, bill collectors and credit grantors all use these sites to gather information on you; and they use the information they gather in ways you probably will not like. Bill Collectors used to have to pay skip tracers to find information that is now available for free. Social Networking sites are Bill Collectors #1 Tool.
For some reason that boggles my mind people freely say a lot about their lives on social media sites. They brag about where they work or about the new car they purchased. They tell stories that reveal where they bank or where they just invested money in a rental property. They also post pictures of themselves in precarious situations. It never crosses their minds how these sites can be used to determine if they are credit-worthy or, when they are in arrears, that a bill collector will be able to get a bead on whether they can pay their bills or not.
Social Media Sites Are Bill Collectors Favorite Tool
These sites are just one more vehicle creditors and bill collectors are using as they continue to become more aggressive in pursuing debts. Some of these sites allow you to list your employment or contact information; and have the potential to cause serious problems if you are in a situation where you could have your wages garnished. Social media sites are becoming treasure troves of personal data for bill collectors and or lawyers to build or support bill collector lawsuits.
Those pictures on your profile or status updates about a new purchase, a raise or your income tax return provide bill collectors evidence about your ability to pay your debts. Ask any bill collector and they’ll tell you that in one or two hours a week tolling social media sites that they are able to obtain information that in the past they might have needed to hire a skip tracer to find.
These new sites can be useful tools for networking and catching up with old friends. But they can also put you at risk if you reveal too much information about yourself and your lifestyle. Disclosing certain personal information, despite the fact that you consider it “private,” could pose a very real threat to your financial future.
Don’t let your vanity help the bill collectors get the best of you. Be careful who you are adding as friends, what you reveal about your spending habits, and keep your employer off these sites. You never know who is out there gathering information on you. One thing for sure, the bill collectors are lurking! If you want to fight back against bill collectors then here’s the best tool for you to use.
